Jigsaw Puzzles
by Dracobolt
Summary: Madoka is kind and gentle and slow to anger - but she has an irrational hatred of jigsaw puzzles, to the point where she actively avoids them because she's embarrassed at how easily she loses her temper over them. One afternoon at Mami's she comes face-to-face with this nemesis. Can she keep her cool?


First fic in ages, and of course it's Madoka Magica because that's my newest obsession. This is based on a headcanon I have for Madoka, and I know that it's entirely silly, but I had fun figuring out how to write something so silly in a (hopefully) believable fashion. Please let me know what you think of my characterization, and enjoy the story!_  
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It's a random, average afternoon in some timeline where the five girls are all on good terms sometime before Walpurgisnacht. They're all over at Mami's place for tea and homework. It's all Sunny Day Life up in here. Anyway, Mami and Sayaka are in the kitchen, getting tea and snacks for the others, while Madoka and Homura are sitting at the coffee table in the living room. They're not saying anything because they don't need to; just being together is enough for these, uh, _friends_. Kyouko, bored by those two lovebirds but not willing to get roped into doing actual work in the kitchen, is browsing the bookshelf.

"Sakura-san, what are you doing?"

Kyouko starts guiltily as Mami, re-entering followed by Sayaka, questions her. Still, she wouldn't be her incorrigible self if she didn't just grin and pull something off the shelf. "I was just looking around. And look what I found!"

"A jigsaw puzzle?" says Sayaka. "Man, I haven't done one of those in years!"

Madoka stiffens. Homura, attuned to Madoka's every move, glances over and sees her friend wearing a stiff smile as she stares at the box in Kyouko's hands.

"I forgot I had that," says Mami. "It's from- Well, if you'd like, we could try putting it together." She sets down the tray she's holding, which has on it tea cups and a pot. Sayaka sets down the snacks she brought in, and Kyouko dumps the jigsaw pieces onto the center of the coffee table.

"Hey, Kyouko, you could at least wait until we've got everything settled," says Sayaka, shooting the redhead an exasperated look. "You could have gotten puzzle pieces in the food!"

"But I didn't," says Kyouko. Her expression is smug, cat-like. She begins sifting through the mound of puzzle pieces.

Homura once again glances at Madoka. There's something off about her friend's reactions.

She's right to wonder, for Madoka is panicking. She _hates_ jigsaw puzzles. Abhors them. It's completely dumb and irrational, she knows that, but that doesn't change the fact that her hands are clenched in fists on her lap. There's no way she can say anything, though. It would be too embarrassing. Kyouko would never let her live it down, and neither would Sayaka. And for her senior to find out… Mami would be kind enough to act as though it wasn't funny, but Madoka knows she would be laughing on the inside. Who wouldn't? Madoka still remembers the last time she had been confronted with a puzzle, that stupid birthday party for her cousin…

"Madoka, is something wrong?"

Madoka startles at Homura's query. She looks over to see her stoic friend peering at her with visible concern. Madoka consciously unclenches her hands and puts on a smile. "Uh, no, I'm fine." She reaches for one of the tea cups that Mami has set out and grabs a piece of biscotti. Madoka proceeds to occupy herself with the food until she senses that the others have stopped giving her weird looks. Maybe, she thinks, she can excuse herself to the bathroom until they've finished.

"Jeez, Kyouko, you're supposed to do the edges first," says Sayaka, matching actions to her words as she sets down three connected edge pieces away from the mound of miscellaneous pieces. "Haven't you ever done a jigsaw puzzle before?"

"There's so many," Kyouko responds. "How'm I supposed to focus on just the edges if I can't even find any?"

It's not a simple 100 piece puzzle. Oh no. That would be too easy, Madoka thinks grimly. No, this one is a whole order of magnitude more difficult. All those tiny pieces, and - she glances at the box to make sure - all of them white. Whose dumb idea was it to make jigsaw puzzles of winter fields, anyway? How were you even supposed to tell what it was? The very thought causes her to tighten her grip on her biscotti. The cookie snaps in half, and part of it plunks into her tea, throwing up tiny droplets.

"Kaname-san?" Kyouko and Sayaka haven't noticed anything, but Mami looks up.

"O-oh, sorry, Mami-san." Madoka dabs at the glass tabletop with a napkin. "I'm fine. Clumsy me, heh heh."

_Is something wrong?_

Homura's voice in her head startles Madoka. She's a ball of nerves right now, and she gingerly reaches for her tea cup for a calming sip. As she does so she responds, _Nothing's wrong, Homura-chan._

Homura sips her own tea, her eyes on the three girls constructing the puzzle. _You have been tense ever since Sakura Kyouko brought out that puzzle._

Why did Homura have to be so damn- _darn_ perceptive? _Darn_ perceptive. Madoka thinks that she really will have to risk some awkward questions and just leave. She's so stressed out that she's even starting to think in curse words. Kyouko must be rubbing off on her. Yes, better to leave than to let things get as bad as last time…

"Madoka, Homura, c'mon and help!" Sayaka's timing is just _perfect_.

With a glance at Madoka, Homura reaches for a handful of puzzle pieces and begins to sort through them, looking for any edges or other pieces that seem to go together. Madoka reaches a reluctant hand likewise, grabbing half a dozen of the cardboard chips. Maybe she can just pretend-

It's no good. It's no good at all. Just holding those innocent-looking cardboard pieces, with their deceptively similar tabs and slots, mocking her inability to discern which ones went where… Before she can give into the urge to crush them in her fist, Madoka carefully and deliberately sets the pieces back down on the table. She drains her tea cup and gets to her feet.

Now the others all look at her.

"Madoka?" Sayaka sets down the puzzle pieces she's holding. "Something wrong?"

Madoka shakes her head, still hoping against hope that she can get out of here without losing any face. "N-no, I just… have to, uh, go… babysit! For my brother!"

"Your brother?" Now Sayaka's looking really confused. "Madoka, I thought you were going to sleep over with the rest of us. Didn't you tell your mom?"

She had, and Junko had given her permission. Had been ecstatic, really, that Madoka was making new friends. Madoka had just forgotten in the heat of the moment. The stupid puzzle was messing with her brain.

"O-oh yeah." Madoka slowly sinks back down, trying to smile past her embarrassment. "Oh, Mami-san!"

"Yes, Kaname-san?" Mami says in the slow, patient tone one might use with a child or an ill person.

"Didn't you say you'd need to run out to the store for some of our dinner ingredients?" Madoka shoots a gaze to the front door. "It's getting late. I can go if you-"

"It's really not necessary. You're my guest, Kaname-san."

"Yeah! C'mon, Madoka, relax!" Kyouko leans across the table and pushes Madoka's abandoned jigsaw pieces back towards her. "We need all the help we can get, since this one," she elbows Sayaka lightly, "is totally clueless about how you do puzzles."

"Hey! Look who's talking!" Sayaka bumps into Kyouko with her shoulder. They both laugh.

Madoka doesn't hear, however. She can only stare at the puzzle pieces. They seem to grow, filling her vision until she only sees the small white shapes mocking her.

"I can't!"

Some small part of her is desperately trying to hold back, but Madoka has already started.

"I can't do it!" She smacks both palms on the coffee table. The light cardboard pieces jump in the air, and so do her friends. "How am I supposed to figure out which pieces go together! They all look the same! And they're all white, too! What's the point? It's not even a real picture! You could just take a piece of paper and cut it into pieces and it would be the same!" She grabs a few of the pieces and struggles to force them to fit, then throws them down. "It's so stupid!"

Four girls stare at her with identical expressions of shock. The rage switch flips, and immediately Madoka feels normal again. Except that now she can feel the embarrassment that was held at bay by her anger.

"My god…" says Kyouko in a low voice. "I didn't think you had it in you."

Sayaka just stares at her, but her open-mouthed astonishment is transforming into a grin, and now she lets out a howl of laughter, wrapping both arms around her middle as she falls into mirth. This is just the cue Kyouko needs, and she joins Sayaka in rolling on the floor.

Madoka buries her face in her hands. "No…" she moans. "I can't believe I did that…"

Someone sits down next to her, and as a hand rests on her shoulder, she hears Mami's comforting words. "It's all right, Kaname-san. I'm sure you must have just been under a lot of stress."

Madoka doesn't respond, definitely doesn't look up, because she can hear the amused edge in Mami's voice, however much her senior is trying to hide it.

And Homura just sits there staring at Madoka, wondering how someone who could fight through so many terrible things without ever giving into despair could possibly get so worked up over a jigsaw puzzle.


End file.
